Instigator / Pro
2
1465
rating
10
debates
25.0%
won
Topic
#3694
School students don't need to learn cursive.
Status
Finished
The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.
Winner & statistics
After 2 votes and with 2 points ahead, the winner is...
zing_book
Parameters
- Publication date
- Last updated date
- Type
- Standard
- Number of rounds
- 2
- Time for argument
- Two days
- Max argument characters
- 10,000
- Voting period
- One month
- Point system
- Winner selection
- Voting system
- Open
Contender / Con
0
1426
rating
7
debates
7.14%
won
Description
Important rules
The team supporting the motion must not shift its point of view. ...
If a speaker makes a statement, they must be able to provide evidence or reasons to support the statement.
Facts presented in a debate must be accurate.
Speakers may not bring up new points in a rebuttal speech.
Round 1
Kids today can Skype, build a blog, and tag a friend. But how many of these modern communicators can still read and write cursive?
Fewer than ever before, studies show. Penmanship is going the way of a lost art, even in homeschools.
“Handwriting is 50 percent of literacy, but children are seeing less and less formal handwriting instruction,” said Toni Schulken, a child occupational therapist who is dedicated to increasing writing literacy.
Vanderbilt University research reveals that children spend just ten minutes a day practicing print and cursive. In many homeschools, parents are simply too buried in lesson plans to squeeze in penmanship. In an effort to keep up with core subjects, some teachers are asking themselves, “What lessons can I forget?”
With so much pressure to preserve penmanship, is the struggle worth the results?
- It can take time away from core or more “relevant” subjects.
- It can be time-consuming and frustrating for parents.
- If students don’t use the skill regularly, they could forget it.
- Penmanship is not as valued in education and society as it once was.
- Because cursive is faster to write, it can appear less legible than print and create confusion. Every year, up to $95 million in tax refunds aren’t delivered correctly because of unreadable tax forms.
Another quandary facing the fate of handwriting: If technology advances to the point that students use electronic or digital gadgets to write their names, do their school work, and communicate, will teachers eventually decide that preschoolers shouldn’t bother learning to write their ABC’s?
In the current digital era, where iPhones and tablets are fast replacing pen and paper, the importance of handwriting, particularly cursive writing , is highly debatable. In fact, with many schools abolishing the cursive writing from the elementary school curriculum, it has become a dead art form. Cursive has been relegated to nearly extinct tasks like writing thank-you cards and signing checks, rumors of its death may be exaggerated. The Common Core standards seemed to spell the end of the writing style in 2010 when they dropped requirements that the skill be taught in public elementary schools.
"The last time I saw a cursive capital Q, I thought it was a 2. Like many of my generation, I started learning cursive in second grade, perfected it in third, and dropped it by the time I finished high school. I couldn't connect my letters now." - Julia Layton
ANALYSING THE QUOTE- here Ms. Layton says that the last time she saw a Q she thought it was a 2 which shows us that although cursive is "a form of art" it just goes to show how messy it can be. Sure it go to show the early birds of education would find this useful as they are prone to scribbles but teaching the other form makes them step out of their comfort zone and allows their brain to think in a different way allowing them to develop from an early stage.
I have long hypothesized on this very topic. Here is what I feel is the reason:
Cursive was originally necessary because lifting a quill from a page would smudge the paper. Therefore, cursive allowed for continual, not stop writing until the ink was exhausted. It is the same way with early fountain pens. Ball point pens started making cursive obsolete, but the rise of the computer age, email and instant messaging has done the most to remove cursive. People can read the standard print letters without problem and have no need to script write when most of what they write is electronic. Again, strictly my thoughts and opinions.
Conclusion:
Cursive doesn't need to be mandatory - but maybe there are some classes where there is room for working on handwriting for artistic or for legibility purposes. There are still many jobs where a computer isn't immediately accessible but recording data is necessary.
Sources:
Forfeited
Round 2
Con forfeited. By failing to contend the Pro arguments, Con has accepted them.
I extend all my arguments. Vote Pro.
Forfeited
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